Mathematicians Of The Day

27th June



On this day in 1908, the Göttingen Academy of Sciences announced a prize of one hundred thousand marks, from the will of Paul Wolfskehl, for a proof of Fermat's last theorem. Thousands of attempts at a proof were submitted. The prize would have been worth about a million pounds in today's money, but when Andrew Wiles collected the prize in 1997 it was about 75 000 DM.

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Quotation of the day

From Augustus De Morgan
The imaginary expression √(-a) and the negative expression -b, have this resemblance, that either of them occurring as the solution of a problem indicates some inconsistency or absurdity. As far as real meaning is concerned, both are imaginary, since 0 - a is as inconceivable as √(-a).
Said in 1831